CHICAGO -- For all the damage the Chicago Cubs offense can do, it's been their pitching staff that's been a thorn in the side of the Milwaukee Brewers so far this season.

Five games, four Brewers losses, three Cubs shutouts.

That's the ugly math after the Brewers fell, 1-0, to the Cubs on Thursday night at Wrigley Field.

Kyle Hendricks did the job this time, allowing just four hits and striking out five over seven innings as he and a Kyle Schwarber home run combined to snap Milwaukee's eight-game winning streak.

"They’ve pitched well against us, for sure. They have," manager Craig Counsell said. "It’s five games and a bunch of shutouts, three different guys."

Jon Lester and three relievers blanked the Brewers, 8-0, on April 5 at Miller Park, and three days later it was Carlos Quintana and three more relievers who combined to post a 3-0 shutout as Chicago won three of four in the series.

The lone game the Cubs lost? It was started by Hendricks, who allowed nine hits (including two homers), four earned runs and a walk over five innings.

He redeemed himself in this one by keeping the Brewers in check from the outset.

Hendricks allowed two-out doubles in the first two innings to Ryan Braun and Orlando Arcia, then a pair of two-out singles to Domingo Santana the rest of the way as the Brewers never advanced a runner to third base.

A two-out infield single by Braun off Brandon Morrow in the ninth served as one last gasp for Milwaukee, but Travis Shaw's fly ball to left died on the warning track.

"We had a two-out double in the first, Domingo had a couple two-out hits," said Counsell. "Hendricks’ ball was moving very well and we were beating it in the ground. They played some good defense, too. They made a couple nice defensive plays that robbed us of an extra-base hit."

Hendricks' counterpart, Chase Anderson (2-2), was nearly as good. But for the second time he was on the wrong end of a shutout.

He limited the Cubs to five hits and a walk with two strikeouts but also made the game's biggest mistake when he left an 0-1 cutter up a little too high. Schwarber jumped on it and sent it out to left, and that was all the cushion Chicago needed.

"One pitch to Schwarber," Anderson lamented afterward. "I feel like if it's up 2, 3 inches he either pops it up or doesn’t hit hit. I kind of put it where he likes it.

"Just one mistake."

The homer was the seventh allowed by Anderson in 34 2/3 innings compared to 14 in 141 1/3 innings in 2017, but he said it's nothing he's too concerned about.

"If I’m pitching deep in games it doesn’t really matter," he said. "If I give up one run every time I go out there, I feel like I can give the team a chance to win, so it doesn’t really matter.

"I think I’m working on elevation a little more like I did last year as I get ahead in the count, and kind of throwing that back in there. I’m just continuing to improve. I think early on my back was bugging me a little bit so I couldn’t get that down and away extension off.

"I don’t look at the home runs as a big deal; just a couple of mistakes, and it’s something to work on."

Anderson did become the first Brewers starter to make it through seven innings, and he did so on just 85 pitches. Had his spot in the order not come up in the eighth, he might have had a shot to go even deeper.

"The longer the starter pitches...you’re winning or it’s within reach," said Anderson, who now has four quality starts in six outings. "My goal is to set the tone. Getting the opening-day nod was definitely an honor and (I'll) just continue and try to get deeper in game and improve.

"Hopefully I can do that every outing. That's the goal."

Counsell agreed that the game was one of those classic pitchers' duels -- something not seen too often at Wrigley Field. The Cubs last shut the Brewers out, 1-0, at Wrigley Field on May 1, 2015.

"Tonight was a case of two pitchers throwing the ball well," Counsell said. "There weren’t a ton of balls to hit for either team, really. But they get on a roll and the pitchers are executing pitches and it definitely gives them confidence.